Las Vegas — Shortly after actress and home TV personality Lisa Rinna cut the inaugural ribbon, Sammy, Frank and Dean joined showgirls and a gaggle of Elvises on Monday to herald the new 1.3-million-square-foot World Market Center, where thousands of the nation's furniture retailers and manufacturers have gathered this week.
Like the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, this new 10-story landmark near downtown Las Vegas is populated with permanent manufacturer showrooms catering to architects and interior designers. At this inaugural market week running through Friday, the first of twice-yearly expositions, buyers have been scouting the latest in home fashions.
In true Vegas style, the market's opening night celebration was an all-you-can-eat meet-and-greet overflowing with food, booze and impersonators. It was the capper to a daylong smorgasbord of self-promotion that included a march of penguins -- the plush, cuddly toy variety -- that were handed out at Magnussen Home to promote the Art Deco-influenced Sunset Blvd. collection by Cristina Ferrare, the former model who has refashioned herself as a designer.
"Trading Spaces" star Doug Wilson held court in a black-and-white lounge at City of Industry-based Harris Marcus Home's showroom amid his collection of lamps made from mercury glass and crackle-glazed ceramics. Known for his over-the-top TV makeovers -- including a boudoir reconfigured as a Pullman sleeper car -- Wilson showed a tasteful restraint here, even if his lampshades were lined in a blue-purple iridescent silk.
"Vegas," proclaimed the rakishly dimpled decorator with the spiky silver hair, "is a great showcase for the furniture industry, which needs freshness and excitement pumped into it."
The World Market Center's promoters plan just that: eight more buildings that will yield 12 million square feet of exhibition space by 2015 -- more than 250 football fields on a 57-acre campus -- suggesting that furniture buyers and manufacturers will be going west to seek their fortunes. That's good news for California: Retailers and, later, shoppers will have access to fresh product lines, and the state's independent manufacturers will have a new venue to show trendsetting designs.
The new center's odds are good: Las Vegas has been a national leader in home appreciation and new construction. Close to 6,000 new residents arrive each month -- a burgeoning market for professional decorators. The show's proximity to other fast-growing Western states and design-conscious cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco also suggests lucrative prospects for exhibitors.
